In a regular season that featured many ups and downs, one of the most encouraging developments for the Cleveland Cavaliers was the emergence of Jaylon Tyson.
The 20th overall pick in 2024, Tyson barely saw the floor during his rookie season. Coming into his second year, Tyson knew that he would have an opportunity to crack the rotation early with Max Strus dealing with injury, and Darius Garland also coming off surgery.Â
He took the baton and ran with it. In the 66 games he played, Tyson averaged 13 points per game, five rebounds, and two assists. He also shot 49 percent from the field and a blistering 45 percent from three-point range, which was the fourth-highest mark in the entire league.Â
However, due to the Cavs overhauling their team at the deadline and suffering a late-season injury, Tyson’s place in the playoff rotation was in question coming into Game One against the Raptors. He was part of head coach Kenny Atkinson’s rotation, but the results were less than stellar.
Jaylon Tyson had an extremely rough Game One against Toronto
Tyson was the third guy off the bench after Strus and Sam Merrill. He was tasked with guarding Brandon Ingram and the results were rough. Tyson had three fouls in his first three minutes of action, although the last one was a bit questionable.
He was playing Ingram physical, which is exactly what Cleveland needs against him, but Tyson was a bit overzealous with the contact. You could tell the young forward had nerves and was trying to overcompensate by being overly-aggressive.
That is part of Tyson’s nature. He plays at 110 percent effort at all times, but it sometimes leads to mistakes. He ended up finishing with two points and four fouls in 13 minutes of action.Â
The one good thing though was that Atkinson did go back to him in the second half, instead of pulling him from the rotation. It shows that he does have some level of trust in the second-year forward and knows that he will need him in this series.
Tyson gives the Cavs great positional size on the wing that they are going to need against a Toronto team that has Ingram and Scottie Barnes. He just needs to be smarter defensively and knock down open shots when he has them.Â
Tyson has shown all season that he can adapt quickly. Cleveland is going to need him this postseason due to his overall versatility that he provides and his toughness. It’s only one game and Tyson will look to bounce back in Game Two.
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